Bekana Daba
New national half-marathon champions crowned from 2012 Olympic Trials course; men’s marathon course and state record; nearly 20,000 event starters
FAST FACTS
39th Chevron Houston Marathon
Houston, TX, Sunday, January 30, 2011
Weather: 64F, 88-100% humidity, wind SE 8mph, overcast – later steady drizzle/rain
* Bekana Daba, in his second marathon, set a personal, course and state record with his 2:07:04. In his debut in Amsterdam 2010, he ran 2:14:40.
* Daba’s time was also the fastest marathon of the year to-date.
* Ethiopian Daba ran a huge negative split: 1:04:17 (first half) vs. 1:02:46 (second half) or 1:31 faster.
* Fifth straight year that there has been a course and state marathon record either by the men or women.
* Mamitu Daska was the fifth straight women’s champion from Ethiopia and she ran the fourth fastest women’s time (third fastest woman all-time) at Houston.
* Each race champion earned $35,000.
* Stephanie Rothstein of Team USA Arizona, third overall, ran the second fastest U.S. women’s time here with her 2:29:35, a 10-plus minute PR.
* In the race, there were seven new 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials qualifiers: Jesse Davis and Kristen Fryburg-Zaitz, Emily Harrison, Nicole Hagobian, Erin Richard, Natasha LaBeaud and Sara Patrick.
* Overall, there were 7,342 marathon, 9,472 half-marathon and 2,984 EP5K starters (19,798 total starters) at Houston’s largest single-day annual sporting event.
Houston will host the 2012 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials on Saturday, January 14, 2012, a first for a single city to host both the men’s and women’s events at the same Trials.
USA Half Marathon Championships
Houston, TX, Saturday, January 29, 2011
Weather: 60F, 88% humidity, wind SSW 8mph, overcast
* Jen Rhines set a half-marathon personal record with her 1:11:14 (previous PR, 1:11:45)
* Three-time Olympian Rhines, 36, won her fourth USA title; first since 2005.
* Mo Trafeh, 25, won his second national road title (also 15K in 2010).
* For this national championship, Trafeh trained in Morocco.
* Trafeh got married five weeks ago.
* Each national champion won $12,000.
* Serena Burla was national runner-up for the second straight year; her place this year was more impressive because she had surgery in February 2010 to remove a malignant tumor in her right hamstring.
* From this event, there were six new 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials qualifiers – four men (Mike Chavez, Joe Driscoll, David Nightingale and Ryan Vail) and two women (Clara Grandt and Lindsey Scherf).
* First Texans, Scott MacPherson, Austin, TX, 1:04:03 and Kelly Williamson, Austin, TX, 1:17:00.
* The athletes previewed the 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials 8-mile loop course.
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